[Arjay Bee]

In late 70s my dad had a Spotmatic and three lens set: the Super takumar 35mm F2 (first edition), the ST 50 1.4 and the ST 135 3.5. I was sworn off touching anything as a teenager.

In my teens and twenties I had an olympus trip rangefinder, then later with young kids had a Canon T50 and kit zoom - auto everything. In the mid nineties my dad gave me his complete set of Pentaxes, including filters and boxes. Used them for a few years but 'sold off' the body and the 35mm when buying a canon powershot digicam - $120 for body and lens - would love to have that lens now - even had the set cla'ed back when I got it from Dad.

Read heaps and learned heaps as the new Pentax DSLRs were released and still had the two supertaks so decided to go with a DL2 to start and same weekend bought a K55 1.8 lens and it has been so much fun since then.

I think my current collection of bodies and lenses is Dad's fault for not letting me touch them as a kid

[Wired]

I came into Pentax via my parents.

It all started when I found that my Kodak P850 wasn't "fast" enough from the time I press the shutter to the time the photo got taken. I didn't use any manual modes back then... I just wanted faster response time because I was missing too many shots. They were all snapshots and not photos though.

A friend had a Nikon (no idea what model) and I loved the colors, the contrast, detail, and quality he was getting, but most of all I loved the response time his camera had. So I started researching what a DSLR was. I had a Pentax MX my mom gave me with a M 50 1.7, but I didn't understand what I had. It wasn't until I got well into my research that I found out I could mount my moms old glass to my camera. I asked my dad and he had a few lenses too. So the K100D was mine. Got it when they first were released, when you could still find *ist 's on the shelf.

I've never looked back since.... and now my LBA and CBA is spawning out of control... K100D, K20D, K5, Q, MX, K1000, Sportmatic, P5... and I'm hunting for an LX, a K-01, and whatever replaces the K5. and now I'm no longer taking snapshots, I'm taking photos. Thanks for the ride Pentax! We're just getting started too.

[civiletti]

In late 70s my dad had a Spotmatic and three lens set: the Super takumar 35mm F2 (first edition), the ST 50 1.4 and the ST 135 3.5. I was sworn off touching anything as a teenager.

The first SLR I used was my father's Spotmatic with a 105mm at a Camel Cup weekend at Watkins Glenn. He also had a Nikon F, a tele-Rollei TLR, and a a few Leicas, which I did not get to use until he gave me the Nikon and Rollei [the Leicas, he sold].

[reeftool]

I owned a Spotmatic and still used it so as I was kicking around getting a DSLR, the Pentax K10D was a logical choice. It was also priced right. I wanted something that was fairly weatherproof as I am always finding myself shooting in foul weather. The Nikon D200 was a camera I was looking at but almost twice the price. I was also not happy with my previous Nikon film camera which I spent more money getting fixed than I paid for it. I owned both Pentax and Nikon lenses. The thing that really sold me was the excellent handling and ergonomics of the Pentax. I felt very comfortable with it from the moment I picked it up in the store.

[Alizarine]

So I'm curious how some of the rest of you were introduced to Pentax and were convinced to buy your first Pentax DSLR. And it's probably wishful thinking, but perhaps some of the stories here can help somebody at Pentax realize that their lack of marketing makes it an uphill battle for somebody to make the decision to buy a Pentax DSLR.

Saw the Pentax K-x in 2009 in a store that carried Pentax cameras. I've been trying out Canons and Nikons that time since I've used cameras from both makers, but somehow there was this feeling that something was missing. When I tried the K-x though, I knew it's going to be the one for me. I did more research, only to find out my choice was right.

So after saving up for it, I got my first DSLR, a Pentax K-x. In screaming red.
...and the rest is history.

[gaweidert]

It was the late it was Richard Zakia who got me interested in photography when I was just a lad. I knew him as Uncle Dick. He married my mother's sister. Incredibly kind and gentle man. Later in life my father told me that he applied for photography school when he joined the navy in early 1941. He did get to shoot things as he was a gun captain on a 16" gun in the #3 turret of the battleship USS Washington. He never really did much photography until his grandkids came along. He actually had a pretty good eye for composition and the "critical moment" as Henri Cartier-Bresson put it.

In college I studied "Photographic Science and Instrumentation" at R.I.T. I got my first SLR in 1970 or so. It was a Mamaya/Sekor 500 DTL. It used the standard Pentax screw mount system. Continued problems with the meter led me to get a Spotmatic II in the mid 70's or so. The best SLR I have ever owned. Focus, change f-stop or shutter speed until the needle centered in the "C" and push the button. Or if I wanted a little different exposure raise of lower the needle a bit.

From there, two Ricoh XR-M's. I left them in spot metering mode. Wore them out. Then I got a PZ1-p and a ZX-5n. I did not like the PZ1-p. It was way to complex. I probably only have two or three rolls of film through it. The ZX-5n got a lot more use. Then a long stretch of no real photography. Life and layoffs got in the way. The shots I took during those years just were flat. Even my wife noticed.

Recently Kodak announced that they were no longer making slide film and the old bug started to come back. I knew I would have to go digital but didn't really want to. The 1,000,000 modes of the PZ1-p kept haunting me and I knew that digital cameras were even worse. Having a plethora of Pentax lenses, which brand was never in doubt. I haven't purchased a lens since 1994 and I still have no auto-focus lenses.

You people here made the decision for me. As I was looking around the internet to see what Pentax had to offer, I came across this site. Most people liked the K5 and someone here mentioned the price reduction to $899 so I ordered it from B&H Photo. Nice to see that their service has not suffered in the 20 or so years since my last order. Thanks to people here, I am learning the beast. I have also added a KatzEye screen with a porro prism as I still use my manual focus lenses. The only other accessory I have for it is the D-BG4 Battery Grip. I really like the way it helps the camera fit in my hand.

One of my favorite lens for it is my Polar (Kalimar) 18 - 28mm lens I purchased in the Gimpo (Kimpo) airport in Seoul, South Korea. That cheap little lens with the wobbly front lens group has a image quality all out of proportion to the $120 I paid for it.

I am happy with the camera. but film will always rule the roost in my book. You see, I am addicted to the smell of fixer. On top of that I fear we will not pass on much of a written or imaging legacy to future generations as it is all digital now.

[jtkratzer]

I was given a Pentax ZX-30 as a gift from my parents after graduating high school and heading to Germany on an exchange program, followed by two weeks in France visiting an exchange student we hosted for a year. Wanting to have something nicer than P&S film camera, that's what I got and started learning how to work an SLR.

After going through a Pentax Optio S and several other (Nikon mostly) P&S cameras, my wife and I decided we wanted to get into a dSLR. I had almost written Pentax off because of all the options with the other makes for lenses, accessories, etc. I stumbled across a thread on a homebrewing forum about the K-5 vs the D7000 and it caught my eye that Pentax was doing some awesome stuff with the weather sealing. Having the ability to get the camera wet in the pool really piqued my interest, and then after seeing the K-5 getting excellent reviews compared to the cameras I was looking at from Canon and Nikon, we decided on the K-5. I've been very pleased with it. The weight is enough to keep the camera pretty steady, but not terrible, even with the old all metal built lenses. I wouldn't want to lug around the D7000 or 7D or whatever all day.

[northcoastgreg]

I had shot Pentax (mostly the K1000) since I was 13, so it was only natural to continue with a Pentax DSLR. I had briefly considered a Canon rebels, since those were the first DSLRs to be somewhat affordable; but I had held back because of I didn't think I could afford the glass. When Pentax finally came out with a $500 DSLR, the *istDL, I entered the world of digital (and I don't ever want to go back to film). In the intervening years, my financial situation has improved, and I have been able to purchase a K200D and a K-5 and a dozen or so Pentax lenses, both old and new. Although I really can't taken credit for having chosen Pentax (I really never did any extensive research of other brands), Pentax has turned out, rather fortuitously, perfect my style of shooting, which is primarily color landscape and wildlife. Had I been a sports shooter or a narrow DOF candid portrait shooter, Pentax would not have been as good a fit.

[RKKS08]

For me it was a no brainer, as I had switched to Pentax in 1981, and still owned 3 bodies and a range of PK and PK/A lenses.

But I had nearly stopped photographing in the late nineties, and when the first DSLRs appeared, I read a lot of the technical reviews. Some of their calculations stated to achieve the same resolution of a SLR with a consumer lens you would need at least a sensor with 12MP. At this stage I decided to switch to DSLR only if such a camera would become affordable (at this time the best DSLRs just offered 6MP, and were very expensive).

But then I had to change my mind, as shooting film on a regular base became very expensive. The K200D was just announced to be discontinued. I bought it at its lowest price (which climbed again when it became obvious there wouldn't be a follower). I got the body for €399 and, at another shop, the kit lens for €49. Later I changed the kit to a used WR version (mint condition, €58) and added a (new!) Cosina AF 19-35 for €33 (because it covers full frame). These 2 are my only AF lenses. Since then I purchased a couple of prime lenses through eBay, all of them FF capable because of my film bodies.

Before switching to Pentax, I used for 10 years Exacta and Exa, which were extremely cheap at that time because East Germany needed money. I think Pentax got somehow burned in my brain because I knew many professionals were using them in the early seventies, and my local shop had always some Spotmatic on display. But for me as a student, it was financially out of reach.

My addiction to photography was caused by one of our neighbours. When I was about 14 and he saw I was interested and started experimenting with my Agfa Silette II, he gave me several years of the Leica Magazine.

[vimeto]

Like a year agoI was looking for an inexpensive option to jump from point and shoot to dslr, and found myself looking at reviews for older models. I read reviews of the nikon d80, d90, canon t1i, some panasonic mirrorless cams and sony, I really wanted a sony, and didn't even know about pentax. While reading reviews I stumbled into a k10d review and I decided thats what I needed. It was cheap, but it had weather sealing, and it was comparable and possibly better than the nikon d80. I chose it because it was cheap and I could buy a couple of lenses instead of spending a ton of money. 6 months later bought the k5 and im in love with them. I think the k5 and k10d are perfect companions. :-D

Btw. If I knew I was gonna get a k5 6 months later, I would've just bought it on the first place, but I saw the difference dslr made, and couldn't help myself. I had to get the best pentax had to offer, and im extremely happy with my decisions!

[lightbulb]

I always check dpreview for the class of camera I am in the market for. I have been enjoying point and shoot and have used Olympus C4000, Pany LX3 (died prematurely probably due to excessive moisture), and then I thought DSLR should be fun and stumbled upon K5 due to its weather sealing. Took me some time to figure out what is Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO but it is worth it. And my teacher is a photography app for Android!

[qwertyazerty]

New guy here.
I spent 3 months agonizing on what DSLR to get. I read every review, ranging from the Nikon D3200, D7000, 5100, the Olympus OM-D to the Canon 650D before one day I saw an asian guy in the Finnish town of Porvoo with a strange looking black camera with PENTAX written on it. I had of course heard of Pentax before but had not, frankly, ever considered it. So i started reading some more reviews and that's when I heard of the K-30 which had just been released. The more I tried reasoning to myself that I should probably NOT get a Pentax, the more sense it made to get i. I didn't own any previous lenses (only a couple of cheap m4/3's) so I didn't really need to stick to any particular brand. I wanted a durable system with a good range of lenses and I was a pretty tight budget. The OM-D and D7k are both weather sealed but are, in my opinion atleast, too expensive (OM-D in particular) and do not have a large enough assortment of weather sealed lenses (Olympus has one for the m4/3).

Finally I gave up and realized that for my needs and for my budjet the K-30 was the only reasonable way to go, so here I am. My camera just arrived at the store and I'm literally on my way to pick it up as I'm writing this.

[absoluteallie]

My dad got me an IQ Zoom P&S as a high school graduation gift in 1993, and I promptly moved to Alaska. The winter didn't offer much entertainment, and I found myself very bored, so I started reading the manual that came with it. I was instantly hooked. That camera even had bulb mode which I was totally intrigued by. Ended up moving to Georgia where I took some stunning pics of savannah. Eventually I dropped that camera and broke it. I decided the time was right to upgrade to an SLR since there were so many limitations with a P&S. I decided on the ZX-30 for the price (ritz was offering a great deal with quantaray 28-80 and 100-300) lenses. I loved that camera. In fact, I was at a yard sale and some old lady sold me her son's comparable. Nikon SLR for (gasp) $25, but I just never liked it. It felt all wrong in my hands. Fast forward a few years, and film/processing were getting cost prohibative, Ritz was gone, and I was let go from my job so they could replace me with 3 new girls who would work for next to nothing (I'm not bitter much). I was uninspired and couldn't have gotten a dslr anyway. Well I found an even better job eventually, but I couldn't justify spending that kind of money. I mean it's just a hobby. Then I saw a review of the K-x on amazon. I started getting obsessed and talking about it all the time. My husband surprised me with one for Christmas. A bright green one. I have no idea where he found that color, but it is crazy and people stop me every time I'm out with it. I've gotten many chances to evangelize the good news of Pentax to many strangers. I love that I can use my old lenses. I'm sure there are many on this forum who would be disgusted by my quantaray lenses, but they' have served me well over the years, and I love them. I recently snagged a K200d on eBay to have as a 2nd body. I couldn't be happier with my 0
Pentax products, and would never consider changing!

[mdodrill]

My first DSLR in 2011 was a pentax because I wanted the pentax prime lens: 15, 21, 40 and 70. Any entry level DSLR would have been ok with me as long as I got the glass. I had owned Pentax film camers in the past: both 35 and 645....regret that I sold all including some interesting glass like the 120/2.8 M

[LFLee]

When I decide to get a DSLR, I want one with AA batteries. The only camera with AA batteries is K200D.
Two of my friends who use Pentax DSLRs also told me that Pentax lenses are the 'cheapest' / 'best bang for bucks', so I was sold on.

Waited and searched for the best price available, I bought a K200D w/ 18-55 for $550.
While the 'cheapest lenses' promise is now gone, I am still with Pentax, hoping to see a kickass FF DSLR from Pentax.